2022-08-17 Meeting notes

 Date

Aug 17, 2022

 Participants

  • @Dave Ormsbee (Axim)

  • @Feanil Patel

  • @Robert Raposa

  • @Ned Batchelder (Deactivated)

  • @Andy Shultz (Deactivated)

  • @Sarina Canelake

  • @Simon Chen

  • @Carlos Muniz

  • @David Joy (Deactivated)

  • @Felipe Montoya

  • @Alexander Dusenbery

  • @Glib Glugovskiy

  • @Christopher Pappas

 Goals

  •  

 Discussion topics

Time

Item

Presenter

Notes

Time

Item

Presenter

Notes

5 min

Review Action Items from last meeting

@Dave Ormsbee (Axim)

20 min

Introduction to Backstage and how it could be used

@Feanil Patel

  • Spotify tool to catalog software related things

  • Single pane of glass to see all software

  • Centered around ownership

  • A lot of our ownership models come from Spotify anyway

  • https://backstage.openedx.org is a deployed version that’s currently running

    • has some of our existing projects

    • by default, you see the things you own or teams that you’re on own

  • Component has pointers to source, docs, relations

  • Defined in catalog file in version control, e.g. https://github.com/openedx/openedx-events/blob/main/catalog-info.yaml (note: file must be .yaml, not .yml)

  • Annotations

    • Currently has a custom openedx.org/arch-interest-groups entry, but not currently displayed in the UI.

    • We should start adding this information

  • Robert Q: How does this relate to owners list?

    • You don’t have to be an owner to be interested in changes.

      • Q: Should all owners be in this list?

        • Not currently planned, but possible for the future.

          • Q: Should people making ADRs reach out to both owners and these arch group people.

            • We should work through this and see how it goes.

  • Ned Q: String separated list?

    • Feanil: Haven’t figured out how to add new schema types in Backstage config yet, so currently that way to pass validation.

  • Andy: This allows us to annotate repos of code, not concepts.

    • Can make tags, can make other component types that aren’t just generic Code. Can add “concepts”, even if it’s not backed by code. A little more complicated, but possible.

      • Andy examples: LTI

  • A lot of what Backstage is being used for is maintainership

  • Robert Q: Is repo the smallest code component?

    • Feanil: You can make Django app level types and put metadata in there if desired

    • Some standard types have plugin support

  • Robert Q: How much are you doing in Backstage directly vs. catalog files

    • Right now, most of the data is in catalog files. The only Backstage config right now is to pull things from the openedx org.

  • David Q: 2U Backstage instance could point to all these?

    • Yes

  • Deployments could also be a component.

  • Dave Q: How would people contribute?

    • https://github.com/openedx/openedx-backstage is where it’s built

    • Add to the plugins folder (see Backstage docs)

    • Make a PR, tag Feanil or Ed

    • Ned Q: How would this interact with 2U Backstage, why is plugins entry blank?

      • Current customizations are in the packages/backend/src/plugins (catalog.ts)

      • (this is calling a plugin with specific params, not making a new one)

  • Robert Q: The idea of other Backstage instances–to what extent are we supporting that workflow?

    • If it is obvious and clear at the moment of a change, we’ll choose the one that is more open. If there’s only one clear way to do it and supporting other companies is complicated, then tCRIL is not going to spend a lot of time researching.

      • Should have an annotation for arch interest around backstage as well

  • Hooking this up to 2U’s instance (David J.)

    • People have to go through a set of steps to publish to it. Can make code changes, see @David Joy (Deactivated)

  • Talk to @Feanil Patel about Backstage questions if you want to develop for it.

20 min

Evangelizing OEP-56 and this group (+ getting early feedback?)

@Dave Ormsbee (Axim)

[Andy] putting a reminder here to talk about cosmonauts LTI example

  • Came up as an example of an ad hoc thing that is relevant to OEP-56

  • OpenCraft also works on it

  • Interesting example of something this group should be able to do, or replace with a Backstage instance.

  • eduNEXT: Same problem with filters

  • Peter: MIT contracted OpenCraft for Library Blockstore LTI work (as an LTI provider).

  • Robert Q: Should we have a hashing-out space to discuss components before we add them to Backstage, or just do things via code directly?

 

 

(rest of time)

Backlog brainstorming?

 

 

 Action items

@Dave Ormsbee (Axim) follow-up with @Ned Batchelder (Deactivated) on GitHub Project setup
@Dave Ormsbee (Axim) create an LTI Component in Backstage

 Decisions